Slack Tasks

The slack plugin supports interaction with the Slack messaging platform.

• posting messages to a channel with the slack task
• working with channels and groups with the slack channel task

The task is provided automatically for all flows, no external dependencies necessary.

Configuration

The plugin supports default configuration settings supplied by default process configuration policy:

{
  "defaultProcessCfg": {
    "defaultTaskVariables": {
      "slack": {
        "apiToken": "slack-api-token",
        "proxyAddress": "proxy.example.com",
        "proxyPort": 123
      }
    }
  }
}

The bot user created for the API token configuration e.g. concord has to be a member of the channel receiving the messages.

Common Parameters

Common parameters of both slack and slackChannel tasks:

• apiToken: required, the slack API token for authentication and authorization. The owner of the token as has to have sufficient access rights to create or archive channels and groups. Typically this should be provided via usage of the Crypto task or configured in the default variables;
• proxyAddress: optional, the proxy’s host name;
• proxyPort: optional, the proxy’s port.

Slack Task

Possible operations are:

• Send Message
• Add Reaction

Send Message

A message text can be sent to a specific channel identified by a channelId with the standard runtime-v2 task call syntax.

flows:
  default:
    - task: slack
      in:
        channelId: "exampleId"
        username: "anyCustomString"
        iconEmoji: ":information_desk_person:"
        text: "Starting execution on Concord, process ID ${txId}"
        ignoreErrors: true
      out: result

    - if: "${!result.ok}"
      then:
        - log: "Error while sending a message: ${result.error}"

    ...

    - task: slack
      in:
        channelId: "exampleId"
        ts: ${result.ts}
        replyBroadcast: false
        username: "anyCustomString"
        iconEmoji: ":information_desk_person:"
        text: "Execution on Concord for process ID ${txId} completed."
        ignoreErrors: true

The channelId can be seen in the URL of the channel or alternatively the name of the channel can be used e.g. C7HNUMYQ1 and my-project-channel. To send a message to a specific user use @handle syntax:

- task: slack
  in:
    channelId: "@someone"
    text: "Hi there!"

Though using @handle does work, it stops working, if the user changes the Display Name of their Slack profile.

Optionally, the message sender name appearing as the user submitting the post, can be changed with username. In addition, the optional iconEmoji can configure the icon to use for the post.

In addition to common task result fields, the slack task returns:

• ts - Timestamp ID of the message that was posted, can be used, in the following slack task of posting message, to make the message a reply or in addReaction action.
• id - Channel ID that can be used in subsequent operations.

The optional field from the result object ts can be used to create a thread and reply. Avoid using a reply’s ts value; use its parent instead.

The optional field ignoreErrors can be used to ignore any failures that might occur when sending a Slack message. When the value for this field is true, Concord flow does not throw any exception and fail when the slack task fails.

The value defaults to false if ignoreErrors field is not specified in the parameters.

The optional field replyBroadcast is used with ts and will also post the message to the channel. The value defaults to false and has no effect if ts is not used.

Add Reaction

The Slack task can be used to add a reaction (emoji) to a posted message using addReaction action.

• action - action to perform addReaction;
• channelId - channel ID where the message to add reaction to was posted, e.g. C7HNUMYQ1;
• ts - timestamp of a posted message to add reaction to. Usually returned by the sendMessage action;
• reaction - reaction (emoji) name.

flows:
  default:
    - task: slack
      in:
        action: addReaction
        channelId: ${result.id}
        ts: ${result.ts}
        reaction: "thumbup"
        ignoreErrors: true
      out: result

    - if: "${!result.ok}"
      then:
        - log: "Error while adding a reaction: ${result.error}"

The addReaction action only returns common task result fields.

Slack Channel Task

The slackChannel task supports creating and archiving channels and groups of the Slack messaging platform.

Possible operations are:

• Create a channel
• Archive a channel
• Create a group
• Archive a group

The slackChannel task uses following input parameters

• action: required, the name of the operation to perform create, archive, createGroup or archiveGroup
• channelName the name of the slack channel or group you want to create, required for create and createGroup that you want to create or
• channelId: the id of the slack channel that you want to archive, required for archive and archiveGroup.

Create a Channel

This slackChannel task can be used to create a new channel with the create action.

flows:
  default:
  - task: slackChannel
    in:
      action: create
      channelName: myChannelName
      apiToken: mySlackApiToken
    out: result
  - log: "Channel ID: ${result.slackChannelId}"

The identifier of the created channel is available in the returned object in the slackChannelId field.

Archive a Channel

This slackChannel task can be used to archive an existing channel with the archive action.

flows:
  default:
  - task: slackChannel
    in:
      action: archive
      channelId: C7HNUMYQ1
      apiToken: mySlackApiToken

The channelId can be seen in the URL of the channel e.g. C7HNUMYQ1

Create a Group

This slackChannel task can be used to create a group with the createGroup action.

flows:
  default:
  - task: slackChannel
    in:
      action: createGroup
      channelName: myChannelName
      apiToken: mySlackApiToken
    out: result
  - log: "Group ID: ${result.slackChannelId}"

The identifier of the created group is available in the returned object in the slackChannelId field.

Archive a Group

This slackChannel task can be used to archive an existing group with the archiveGroup action.

flows:
  default:
  - task: slackChannel
    in:
      action: archiveGroup
      channelId: C7HNUMYQ1
      apiToken: mySlackApiToken